It shows that 7.3 percent of financial advisers in the U.S. have been cited for misconduct based on publicly disclosed data. The types of misconduct considered for the study include:

Customer disputes

Civil cases settled in the favor of the client

Criminal cases in which advisers were found guilty

Any firing for cause

Researchers ranked the firm Oppenheimer & Co. as having the greatest percentage of financial advisers with a record of misconduct — 19.6 percent. That firm is followed by First Allied Securities, with 17.7 percent, and Wells Fargo Advisors Financial Network, 15.3 percent.

Roughly 30 percent of advisers with misconduct records in the study are “repeat offenders,” according to the study. In fact, advisers with misconduct records are five times more likely to engage in misconduct again in any given year.

About half of advisers lose their jobs after being censured for abuses, but about half of those who lose their jobs get hired by other firms within a year. The paper notes:

“Firms that hire these advisers also have higher rates of prior misconduct themselves … Our findings are consistent with some firms ‘specializing’ in misconduct and catering to unsophisticated consumers, while others use their clean reputation to attract sophisticated consumers.”

How to vet financial advisers

Researchers found that adviser misconduct is also concentrated at firms that both serve retail customers (individual investors like you and me) and are in locations with older or less educated populations.